Costa Rica Will Have For the First Time a Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival

This year the first edition of Histeria International Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival, with the support of the Costa Rican Center for Film production. The films can be enjoyed from October 27th and until November 2nd, in places such as Sala Garbo, Cine Magaly, San Pedro Cinemas and the Centro de Cinema.

The Histeria festival offers feature films and short films not only from Costa Rica, but also from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Honduras, Panama, Russia, among others.

This variety of productions shows how horror, sci-fi and fantasy cinema is built in other parts of the world, always looking to transport the public imagination with stories out of the ordinary.

Raciel del Toro

Raciel del Toro, general director of the Costa Rican Center for Film Production, comments: “For the Film Center it is important to support and celebrate film promotion initiatives and training of audiences that contribute to a varied cultural offer”.

Del Toro also explains the importance of having more and more festivals and exhibitions that “make gala of the diversity that exists in the audiovisual universe of genres and ways of telling stories, this way we will have a more collaborative and sustainable ecosystem in the audiovisual sector. For whom it is we enjoy stories of fear, apocalypse, futurism and fantasy, be welcome and to stay the Hysteria festival.”, she concludes.

The main objective of Histeria is to become a window for genre cinema both at the nationally and internationally, it also seeks to be a space of reference and exhibition for the cinema of horror, sci-fi and fantasy from the region.

This curated selection of movies offers a wide variety of quality Latin American cinema, including documentaries, animation, classic fiction from vampires, a selection of zombies throughout history, among others.

Estefani Céspedes

Estefani Céspedes, Costa Rican documentary filmmaker and director of the Histeria festival, explains: “Countries such as Korea, Argentina and Mexico already have internationally renowned genre festivals, for what is important to generate markets for the Central American industry, profiling Costa Rica as a focal point for this type of production to continue strengthening the cinematographic industry cinematographic”.

“Despite the difficulties and lack of state support currently facing the film industry in our country, filmmakers continue to produce quality cinema capable of reaching festivals most important in the world, and this work deserves to have an exhibition window”, adds Céspedes.

For this first edition, Histeria launches a contest for Tico and Panamanian scriptwriters with the support of Cine House, in order to encourage filmmakers from both countries to tell their stories, stimulate the industry and promote new narratives. The prize offers financing to carry these scripts to its realization and thus contribute to expanding the horror, sci-fi and fantasy film industry in the region.

Nicolas Pacheco

Nicolas Pacheco, Costa Rican filmmaker and screenwriter, will be one of the members of the jury during the festival. “I am excited to be part of this festival that rescues the tradition of a cinema that dares to dream of the future, with the nostalgia of other worlds and face our nightmares on the screen, to find other meanings in our daily life”, affirms Pacheco.

In recent years, the Costa Rican film industry has been growing, many of the national productions have been part of the big festivals and have seen their work recognized through awards obtained for the first time in the history of Costa Rican cinema. The Hysteria festival has in its first edition, an offer so that lovers of good cinema can enjoy stories that make your skin crawl and make your senses fly. To learn more visit its official page: www.histeriafilmfest.com